Marla Gold Scholarship Recipients

The Marla J. Gold, MD Endowed Scholarship Fund offers financial assistance in the form of tuition awards for the MPH portion of the program to students pursuing the MD/MPH degree at Drexel University, a joint program between the Dornsife School of Public Health and the Drexel College of Medicine.

The Gold Scholarship is awarded to a student in the MD/MPH program with experience and special interests in leadership as it relates to public health and medicine.

All applicants should indicate their interest in the Gold Scholarship at the time of application to the MPH program.

A. Sami Abdul-al, 2024 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Urban Health
Faculty Mentor: Esther Chernak, MD, MPH, FACP

Focus: My primary focus in healthcare has always been on mental health. When I was developing a picture of what I wanted my career to look like, I need to find a balance in one-on-one work with patients and work that allows me to creatively solve problems on a larger scale. I have seen through my life, through my experiences in medical school and my own friends and family, that health and wellness are tightly bound to a person's mind. Now, as I study public health, it is become even more clear that the mind is stitched to people's environments, social networks, and societies.

As I train to become a psychiatrist, I want to pay special attention to broader determinants of health so I can refine my ability to understand my patients. Furthermore, I want to use my one on one experiences with my patients to inform my work in public health.

Ripal Sheth, 2024 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Urban Health
Pronouns: she/her
Faculty Mentor: Esther Chernak, MD, MPH, FACP

Focus: As an aspiring family physician, I always felt as though my role as a physician extended beyond my clinical duties. Without impacting the systems, institutions, and social determinants of health that affect my patient's health, I felt like my work as a doctor would be incomplete. Drexel's MD/MPH program gives me the opportunity to take what I learn from my patients and apply it to the larger society around them.

I am excited this year to be completing Drexel's online program in Urban Health while living in Pittsburgh. This program will help me learn about the unique challenges that urban populations face and help me better address these issues. I am excited to be working with my faculty mentor to develop and ILE related to food insecurity or health literacy within urban populations.

Natalie Correa, 2023 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Community Health and Prevention
Faculty Mentor: Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD

Focus: During the summer of my first year in medical school, I completed the Bridging the Gaps Community Health Internship Program. It was then that I realized that community and individual health cannot be promoted independently from one another and committed to pursuing a dual MD/MPH degree. I’m excited to learn how to approach health problems from a population level, how to develop equitable and attainable health interventions and how to incorporate community health and prevention into my future clinical practice.

I am interested in the field of maternal and child health and am currently connecting with faculty within the Community Health and Prevention Department to develop an ILE project that will allow me to learn about and explore this field.

Matteen Maroofian, 2023 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Global Health
Faculty Mentor: Alex Ezeh, PhD

Focus: I always knew I wanted my role as a physician to extend beyond the hospital, as I believe clinical medicine and population-based health are less rigid and more intertwined than we currently treat them. Part of the reason why I came to Drexel was because of their dual-degree MD/MPH program that would allow me to seamlessly integrate this experience into the fabric of my white coat journey, learning to treat a patient less like an individual and more like a person.

This year, I will be completing the online global health degree while living in Nigeria and working for a start-up medical nonprofit called Julayo, focused on delivering healthcare and employment opportunities to underserved communities. Our mission involves delivering medical care and employment opportunities to underserved communities. The project consists of building a health clinic & vaccination center, creating a school of nursing and training various health professionals, and lastly, constructing a hospital staffed by members of the local community. Our vision is to create something long lasting, empowering communities to become self-sufficient in providing for their own health needs.

During this time, I am also looking to explore the connection between media and public health, as my undergraduate training was in filmmaking (and engineering). To me, storytelling is not only the foundation of clinical medicine, but also an effective way to educate and bring health concerns to the forefront of public consciousness.

Brett Mitchell, 2022 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Community Health & Prevention
Faculty Mentor: Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD

Focus: I decided to get my MPH because, as an aspiring pediatrician, I want to be able to support children and their families through community programs to keep them out of the hospital.

I plan on pursuing a project that focuses on gun violence among adolescents in Philadelphia and to find ways to support those affected by it.

Alexandra Portugués, 2021 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Community Health & Prevention
Faculty Mentor: Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD

Focus: I chose to pursue the combined MD/MPH degree after completing the Public Health Scholars track at Drexel College of Medicine and discovering my passion for public health during my experience with pediatric firearm injury prevention research.

I believe the formal MPH training will complement my medical education and add depth to my future practice as a physician in the field of OB-GYN, while impacting my patients health at the community level. I hope to use the MPH knowledge to inform my future research endeavors and guide interventions to address public health issues within women’s health.

My ILE project will focus on on interpersonal violence (IPV) and violent injury prevention and how IPV is related to pregnancy outcomes for mom and baby. I hope to engage in a community based intervention aimed at reducing rates of IPV and improving maternal/fetal morbidity and mortality.

Debi Smith, 2021 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Global Health with a minor in Maternal Child Health
Faculty Mentor: Renee Turchi, MD, MPH

Focus: Prior to starting medical school, I knew I wanted to pursue a dual degree in public health to allow me to have a better understanding of my patient population and their needs. I have a strong interest in preventative research particularly regarding women's health and access to care globally.

The primary reason why I chose Drexel for medical school was because of their MD/MPH dual degree program and strong curriculum in women's health. I believe my MD/MPH will enrich my skills as a practicing clinician and take on a more holistic approach to treating my patients.

For my Integrative Learning Experience, I am working as a fellow the National Institute of Health as part of their team for the Accelerated Control of Cervical Cancer Moonshot aimed at eradicating cervical cancer with primary and secondary prevention measures globally and ensuring the most adequate treatment options for populations with and without HIV.

Shraddha Damaraju, 2020 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: A combination of Community Health & Prevention and Health Management & Policy
Faculty Mentor: Theodore Corbin, MD, MPP

Focus: I am pursuing the MD/MPH dual degree path because I want to use both medicine and public health to change people’s lives. Beyond treating my patients in the office, I want to have the knowledge and skillset to think more broadly and come up with solutions at the population level to improve health outcomes while reducing health disparities. I am hoping to use my MD/MPH degrees to treat patients at the individual level, improve social determinants of health at the community level, and contribute to health equity and social justice for all, especially communities made vulnerable by systemic oppression and marginalization.

My Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) project is with Healing Hurt People and the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice, specifically within their peer training academy designed to educate and empower young Black men affected by interpersonal violence to become peer specialists and community healthcare workers. My project involves creating training modules centered around substance use, harm reduction, primary care and preventative care, chronic stress and systemic oppression as it relates to medicine, and more. I believe health education is one of the most powerful tools that both public health and medical practitioners can use to empower people to take charge of their health and wellbeing, and for this reason I’m very excited to be working on a health education-themed project while learning more about trauma-informed practice and broader social justice issues.

Saranya Khurana, 2020 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Faculty Mentor: Stephen Lankenau, PhD

Focus: I believe my MPH will make me a better, more well-rounded physician and researcher. I hope to go into psychiatry, and wish to use my MPH to treat patients' health in the context of social determinants, as well as influence mental health policy to increase access to care.

My ILE project is in drug use in young adults, and I am excited for this opportunity to explore an interesting field in psychiatry through a public health lens.

Jake Ferguson, 2019 Scholarship Recipient

MPH Major: Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Faculty Mentor: Jana Mossey, PhD, MPH, MSN

Focus: I wanted to purse dual MD/MPH degrees since my first year at Drexel University College of Medicine because I wanted to have perspective of healthcare on a systematic level as well as individual.

I think the skills I will learn from focusing on Epidemiology and Biostatistics are invaluable and will put me at the forefront of bringing new clinical research into everyday practice and also participating in my own clinical research.

My Master’s ILE project will focus on the relationships between depression and pain.